Time of the Witch
by thepenisasmightyasthesword
Summary: Elphaba Thropp discovers her extraordinary powers a bit earlier than she did at Shiz...
1. Chapter 1

**A sudden realisation**

'Shush Elphaba,' demanded Frex, not even taking his eyes off little Nessa as he cuddled the little baby.

Nessa smiled and gurgled and Elphaba felt something deep within her ache and twist. At least her mother Melena, for all her faults, still talked to her when she had been alive.

Bored, Elphaba wandered off. She couldn't go outside, no matter how sunny the weather, for fear of the neighbours calling her names and chasing her away with sticks. Nanny was in the servants' quarters, squinting into an old Lurlinistic text.  
Despite how pretty and well-kept the mansion looked from the outside, the rest of her house had been abandoned. Cobwebs gathered on very broken chandelier whilst soiled yellow sheets were draped around most of the furniture.  
Elphaba had more or less explored every part of the one splendid mansion by the time she was six. However, as she ascended onto another floor, she suddenly stopped. A shaft of sunlight shone through the dirty windows, settling onto an old wooden door.

Elphaba blinked; that room was one of the very few she had never entered before. She did not know why—Frex had never forbidden her to enter and after turning the knob, the door easily sprung open.

The dust settled, revealing an ordinary small library. The books were musty and mouldy from disuse, the text faint and faded. She opened the one closest to her and squinted in the gloom. Most Wicked Spells and Enchantments'  
A thrill of trepidation ran through her. Did Frex even know this existed

 _Witchcraft._

Elphaba reflexively rubbed her left arm, where the bruises still stung.

'Don't use your sinful magic, you… _witch!'_

Elphaba shuddered with the memory of her father squeezing and shaking her after one of her… outbursts. The last one had happened on the day of her mother's funeral, when she caught her aunties snickering as the priest droned on about what a loyal wife her mother was. Whatever her mother's faults, Elphaba felt that Melena deserved to be respected. She smirked at the memory of her aunts shrieking in pain as the hems of their robes caught on fire.

Most Potente Magicke'

'A Witch's Familiar'

'Weather Magic 101'

A wide grin stretched over her mouth, revealing her sharp canine teeth. Elphaba suddenly understood why Frex and the others were so afraid of her; she was the master hunter and they were her prey.


	2. Chapter 2

That dinner time, with her newfound knowledge, Elphaba did not feel so gloomy. The empty chair next to Frex was a painful reminder of her dead mother but today it did not hurt as much. Frex, as usual, was pontificating on the glories of the Unnamed God, thanking Him for their bountiful dinner.

Guiltily, Elphaba thought that the best food she had for a while was at Melena's funeral.

The small family started eating the food. Frex kept on giving Elphaba dark glances of resentment through his narrowed eyes, a new occurrence which appeared after Melena's untimely death.

' _Magic is a type of energy. Nobody knows where it comes from but when it appears, it is most potent. Scholars circa The Early Ozma Period believe that magic essentially acts as a 'reality bender', defying the laws of any science or indeed, logic. However, magic has been standardised in a way to appear logical…'_

Elphaba yawned, her eyes heavy with sleep. The first spell she had ever taught herself was one of illumination; her bedroom was lit by a ball of light merrily bobbing inside an old disused lantern. She stayed up most of the night, restless with the thrill of gaining power. A stack of books lay hidden under her bed, books on history, books on theory, all books about magic.

She quickly murmured a counter-spell and the light vanished. Elphaba shuddered at the thought of her dear father ever finding out about her magic. He was a sanctimonious and deluded bastard, Elphaba thought, and it was a shame that she was related to a man so unwilling to nurture her gift.

In the room next to hers, Nessarose let out a thin , annoying wail. Frex was at once by Nessa's side , comforting his precious girl. Elphaba felt a twinge of sharp, cruel envy. Elphaba knew would never the most loved. Elphaba knew she was a freak because she was green. And Elphaba knew, even at the tender age of six, that she needed to help herself before the world destroyed her.


	3. Chapter 3

It was Elphaba's first day at school. She was seven, turning eight next month. With Nessarose's _condition_ , as Frex put it, all the family's resources had to go towards looking after Nessa. This meant the end of her tutoring with Turtle Heart, an adult she had actually come to like and respect. She fondly fingered the glass bauble in her pocket; Turtle Heart gave it to her before he left and it was the only present she had ever received.

Frex had unwillingly dropped her before school, pushing her into the principal's office before turning around and leaving. He did not even say goodbye.

Elphaba sulked for a while before surreptitiously peering into the principal's room. The principal was sitting on the leather chair behind her desk, quietly looking through some was an old rotund woman dressed head to toe in pastel and reminded Elphaba of old grandmothers from children's tales. China plates with adorable kittens on them filled the mahogany cabinets on either side of the room. The walls were covered with twee flowery wallpaper and adorned with the various art her young charges had made. There was even a frilly lace tablecloth on her desk, where her nameplate sat, _'Mrs Everett'_ emblazoned in officious gold typing.

Taking a deep breath, Elphaba knocked on the door.

'Hello,' said Elphaba, suddenly feeling shy, when the woman finally opened it.

Mrs Everett stifled a scream of terror. What hideous creature was this?

Instead of the cute and wholesome children she took pleasure in educating and taking care of, there stood beneath her a… _freak_. A tall gangly child with _green_ skin- not a pleasant shade of green like the grass, but a sickly, pale sort of green that reminded her of a decomposing corpse. The child's hair was long and windswept, making her look like some gypsy-beggar instead of the daughter of the Governor.

But Mrs Everett of Munchkinland, herself the daughter of a respected doctor, was nothing if not polite.

'You must be the new student,' Mrs Everett said when she finally recovered.

Mrs Everett felt a twinge of pity for her newest student as she approached the classroom and saw the rows of children inside. She knew how cruel children could be but it wasn't her fault Elphaba was such an abhorrent colour.


	4. Chapter 4

Elphaba did not know how she did it.

One moment she was running as fast she could through the playground, with the mob chasing after her. Then, as she reached the gates separating the school from the streets, there was a flash of blinding light and she ended up on the _roof_ of the school.

'You little _freak_ ,' hissed Frex as he hauled her home, his rough fingers a bruising grip on her arm.

When the mob had realised that they could not climb the roof without any magical means, they dispersed and one of the teachers had come, looking for the missing new girl.

Elphaba smirked at the memory of the teacher's yell of surprise when he found her on the roof, a few hundred metres from the ground.

At least the teachers had been sympathetic to her plight when she explained that some children were determined to see whether she was 'green all over'. The Principal promptly sent someone to fetch her father and pretending to be a good parent, Frex had come over.

When they approached their house, Frex pushed his daughter up the stairs and into her room.

'And don't come out again!' he shouted as he slammed the door behind him, muttering about the Unnamed God and what He did to sinners.

Elphaba sat on top her bed, blankly staring at the wall. It was well past her bedtime but she refused to go downstairs; she did not want to beg for food.

An ugly ball of hatred twisted inside her.

Yet what could she do?

She knew no other family members who could take her in. Her magic was not strong enough to hurt Frex… _yet_.

She smiled as she thought about the books hidden beneath the bed. She had read enough of them to master the fundamentals of magic but lacked control. She had power but minimal technique.

And soon, once she was done reading about alchemy, blood magic and the peculiarities of flight, she would have to find more.

The burning sense of desire in her to get away from Frex smothered the gnawing hunger she was experiencing. It gave her a nice warm glow as she finally drifted off to sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

After completing her chores—Frex had taken to treating her like a servant, now that they could no longer afford any – Elphaba wondered outside into the garden to play for the rest of the day. It was a typical summer's day with the sun shining fiercely onto the unending cornfields of Munchkinland and the sky an unbroken strip of azure.

Elphaba never liked the outdoors before but now they were a chance for her to practice the more potent spells she had gleaned from the books.

' Lighter than feather, lighter than air, spirits of the wind , lend my your power!'

With a flourish of her wand—really, a stick she had found from the ground—the flowers on the ground started quivering. Elphaba held her breath.

A few daisies leapt from the grass with a pop.

Elphaba sighed in disappointment, tossing the stick away.

' _Don't leave yet, youngling,'_ hissed a sibilant voice from the shade of a nearby oak tree.

Elphaba jumped in alarm. The very air seemed to vibrate with magic.

'W…Wh..Who is there?' she stuttered. She glanced at her home, all the way at the end of the field she was in. If she ran fast enough, she just might make it…

The voice laughed, a strained harsh sound.

' _Stay where you are,'_ it ordered.

The undergrowth rustled and Elphaba blinked in surprise as a small green snake slithered out.

The little thing was hardly bigger than Elphaba's arm but she took a step back nonetheless.

'What are you? Are you an Animal—'

' _Silence!_ ' interrupted the creature.

' _How dare you insult me by calling me an animal! I am a Familiar and have come to aid you. Despite your puny stature, I have sensed great potential,'_ it continued, rearing its head and staring into Elphaba's eyes.

According to her books, familiars were some thought of spirit which enhanced a sorcerer's magical abilities. In return, the spirit fed off the magical energy of the sorcerer's spells. Familiars were thought to have disappeared, along with most magical beings a few centuries ago.

Elphaba's eyes widened.

'If you are what you claim to be,' she said, ' then let me try my spell again'.

The grass snake shook as if laughing and then nodded its head.

She picked up another stick and started the incantation.

The air hissed with magic this time.

Elphaba noticed something was wrong when the ground seemed to shrink, her feet started feeling strange and …

 _Holy shit._ Was she flying?

' _Do you want some help?_ ' asked the creature, who now appeared to be convulsing from laughter.

'Get me down, Ozdamnit!'

Abruptly, she stopped her upward trajectory and fell onto the ground in an unsightly heap.

The creature—her familiar—took this as an opportunity to slide up her arm and into her sleeves, where it curled, hidden. In a daze, Elphaba hurried back to the house, rushing up the stairs before locking her bedroom door and collapsing onto the bed. Was this a dream?

Elphaba lay tossing and turning on the bed for hours, unable to go to sleep. A familiar meant so many new opportunities. A new source of power, a new teacher to guide her in the magical arts and as she thought this, she felt a strange twinge of warmth, a new confidante—no—a new _friend_ with whom to confide in.

Elphaba never had a friend before.

She drifted off to sleep with a smile on her face.


	6. Chapter 6

The morning sun streamed through the dirty windows, covering the whole room with the vibrant brightness of a new day. Pleasantly woken up, Elphaba stretched and started to leave the bed.

' _Hello little one,_ ' hissed a sibilant voice in her ear.

In her alarm, she flailed onto the ground, wildly looking around for the attacker until she saw the snake—her familiar—lounging on top of her blanket.

'So you really do exist!' exclaimed Elphaba, who had chalked up her first supernatural experience to a vivid and very bizarre dream.

' _You are not the only one with magic, my child…although I have not sensed such strong magic for centuries,'_ replied the familiar, who had now slithered out of her bed and onto her arms.

'How do you still exist? I thought your kind died out years and years ago as the magic was leaving Oz.' replied Elphaba as she put on her boots and outfit for the day.

The familiar looked pensive.

' _I do not know. You are right—there are no others of my kind though I have searched . I am young as well—almost a decade passed since I first came into existence. I know nothing of my origin except that I was birthed by a strong surge of magical energy in Oz… stronger than any that my kind had seen before._ '

Elphaba was also deep in thought. The fact that the familiar only came into existence less than a decade before may even coincide with her birth. Maybe a magical event had occurred then which explained her powers.

But first things first—she needed to find a means to escape Frex. With the snake at her side, a magical solution seemed the most viable.


	7. Chapter 7

Elphaba had to bide her time, build up her magical strength. With the help of her familiar, the simple scourging spell created for cleaning purposes almost flayed away the entire veneer of the floor she practised on. The light spell she had mastered so long ago created a ball of light so bright that it blinded her for an hour.

The very air around her seemed to thrum with power and even her father, neglectful and cold as he was, noticed something different about her. To Elphaba's great relief, he was too occupied with her darling sister Nessarose to bother her about it. The girl had was confined to a wheelchair even before she had a chance to crawl and Frex had hired a servant to take care of the girl.

'Hey, greenie!'

Elphaba glowered in annoyance as she was struck by a half-eaten apple. The boy who had thrown the apple—Fabian or something—was a little brute who strutted about the place because his father was the head of the Gale Force in Munchkinland. His cronies followed behind him like sheep.

Normally, Elphaba would run home or into the school, where the teachers were but this time, she felt a surge of power charge through her. Her familiar hissed in approval when she turned around to face the boys.

Before when of them could say something, she unleashed an arc of magic into their ranks. The boys were thrown several feet into the air. The whole world seemed to stop as Elphaba looked on in amazement: never before had her magic so potently affected actual people.

'What do you want Fabian?' she demanded as she towered over the boy, who lay sprawled over the concrete playground.

Her familiar chose this moment to pop out of her sleeves and hissed at the boy, poking his dark fork-tongue out in amusement.

The boy let out a girlish scream and sprinted away, followed closely by his minions.

Elphaba felt a little guilty for hurting him but that expression on Fabian's face had been worth it.


	8. Chapter 8

The day after that little incident, Elphaba noticed a newfound respect amongst her peers. No longer would they mock her, calling her a loser in front of her face or call her 'the frog'. Now the class turned deathly silent when she walked in as if they were holding their breath.

Even the teachers noticed something different when the green girl no longer wanted to stay cooped up in the classroom during breaks. Instead, she was actually outside, without her books.

' _Hurry up,_ ' ordered her familiar as Elphaba climbed over the fence to the streets outside. She looked around anxiously but nobody seemed to notice the green girl gone.

She muttered a quick repairing spell on her dress, which had torn in half after she jumped off that fence and dashed off the street. Now free of the parasites who mocked her before, she had plenty of spare time on her hands. She had wanted to spend the afternoons to herself before home and Nessa and her horrible father but her familiar had other ideas.

' _We need to start planning for your future away from your family,'_ explained her familiar had explained. Since Elphaba was just a ten-year-old girl and a green girl at that, she was unable to procure any funds for her future. Using her magical powers to create currency or any helpful supply was beyond her meagre powers, which only covered any spells in the books and any spells she had come up with. The magical outbursts had more or less stopped at this point, seeing as there was nobody around to provoke her anymore.

So, the only way her familiar had saw fit to 'increase her funds' was to engage in criminal behaviour.

At first, she had objected to it. Elphaba may be obstinate, rude and green but she was not a _thief_. Yet when she returned home to see Frex wrapping presents for Nessa's birthday-something she never experienced—or spending the family's scant earnings on some luxurious gift for his darling daughter, she knew she would never get a dime off him.

The town market in Munchkinland was a quaint little thing. It lacked the financial clout of the Gilikinese markets in the North and did stock any of the exotic goods from the Vinkus. In fact, most products could be brought from the local stores so the town market functioned as a meeting place for bored Munchkinlanders to roam. Given that most Munchkinlanders were farmers, the only idles ones left over were the rich ones, the ones with wealthy parents and stocks in the Emerald City.

It was a perfect opportunity to cut some purse strings and it wasn't as if those spoilt children would actually miss them.

Elphaba skulked in the shadows of the Corn Exchange as teenagers walked past her, oblivious. She muttered a few spells and the purses started floating towards her as the Munchkinlanders' backs were turned. Elphaba let out a sigh of relief when the purses dropped onto her hand, laden with coins.

'How was school?' asked Nanny when Elphaba walked in at last.

Elphaba paused for a while but after making sure her contraband was hidden safely in her bag, she replied 'Same old, same old,'.

She dashed upstairs, hoping to avoid her father and rushed into her bedroom. As quietly as possible, she pried loose the floorboards and hid the purses underneath.

Then she promptly collapsed onto the bed, exhausted from a day of such …wickedness.

That new familiar really was a bad influence.


End file.
